Communities in the grip of drought are doing everything they can to keep their local kindergartens from shutting down, but they fear they're running out of options.

Three years ago Mingoola residents welcomed African refugee families with open arms as part of a settlement program hailed for invigorating a dying country town. Now the tiny NSW town has lost all of its newest members.

As Australians start to set up their home offices and practice social distancing, we've assembled 10 simple steps every Australian can take to keep safe amid the COVID-19 panic.

A former shearer tells how he turned away from life as a wealthy businessman to find happiness.

Nursing homes have been locked down to protect vulnerable older people from the coronavirus but families who provide basic care, like feeding, say they need access because their loved ones may not survive without it.

Hospitals across Tasmania have banned visitors, but one Hobart doctor is helping patients stay in touch with their loved ones during coronavirus pandemic by asking people to "donate" their iPads.

In 2000, Virgin Australia first entered the Australian aviation market with one route, two aircraft and 200 employees. Last month, it was flying to 56 destinations around the world.

Jessica and James Brewer are volunteering in a Mozambican slum for the fourth year running, only this time they are expecting a child, parenting a toddler and dealing with the challenges of coronavirus.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie says it won't "go down well" for the Coalition if she has to beg for the release of the year-old report into whether Tasmanian war hero Teddy Sheean deserves a Victoria Cross.

A Riverland family farm diversifies its cropping operation to take on crickets.

Sixty years ago it would have been difficult to find a home in Australia without a millet broom. Now, as an industry dies around them, two men are refusing to be brushed aside by the passage of time.

The family and friends of Naomi Williams, who died, along with her unborn son, after 20 attempts to get help, say the apology they have received via a statement from the health district is not good enough.

The NSW Government has announced a $10 million initiative to combat what the Agriculture Minister has described as a looming "fish Armageddon".

A group of southern New South Wales irrigators have pledged to give millions of litres of their own water to those who need it most, but they need help to deliver it.

Israel Folau claims he could have one day skippered a "trophy-winning Wallabies team", as he seeks $14 million in damages following his Rugby Australia sacking.

A decade after they lost everything in Black Saturday, one Victorian family is learning just how difficult it is to declutter.

Antony Hamilton, who stepped into the artistic director role of Chunky Move in April, presents a five-year vision in the epic, collective new work Token Armies.

An investigation is launched after relatives were told their loved one had been discharged, prompting a search for the missing man whose body was actually in a Melbourne morgue all along.

New red light cameras in Victoria generate more than $12 million in extra fines, catching out thousands more speedsters and red-light runners. Ten intersections in Melbourne and Geelong have proved particularly lucrative.

The sister of murdered exchange student Aiia Maasarwe says she does not feel safe in Melbourne, as she returns to the city of her sister's death to help launch a fellowship in her honour.

After suffering a stroke as a baby, Adyan bin Hasan's left hand is weak. And while it doesn't stop the five-year-old playing basketball and cricket, his disability is the reason his family's permanent visa application has been rejected.

Some parent visas cost up to $40,000 while others have a 30-year waitlist, making them completely out of reach for many migrant families. But advocates say rather than being a drag on the system, elderly family members could actually boost the economy.

Over four years, Bobby Singh made more than $2 million in subsidies for students enrolled at this Melbourne training college. It never taught a single class. But it all came undone in one phone call.

Cyril Summerton of Australind is the third generation of his family to collect stamps. He inherited a wonderful collection from his Grandfather but it was the people he met while fishing that really got him hooked on the hobby.

An unsealed road leading to a family farm between Albany and Denmark reveals an unexpected treasure trove of military artefacts.

Kimberley historian Dion Marinis has travelled to the US to meet the families of an air crew who died at Broome during the 1942 Japanese air raid on the remote town.

Launceston Country Women's Association (CWA) shop in Launceston is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2015.

The Morrison Government is pushing ahead with a plan to become a world leading producer and exporter of hydrogen.

Pauline Milich brought her 14th child into the world while helping another woman deliver a baby life was different in the early 1900s.

The Victorian Government is set to announce that it will take over the running of the state's only privately run public hospital.

Detectives charge a man with murdering a woman who was found shot dead at a house in north-west Victoria at the weekend.

The family of former AFL star and coach Danny Frawley say they are "totally shocked and devastated" by the loss of "a remarkable man who touched the lives of many", a day after he died in a car crash in western Victoria.

A former private investigator is using her skills to try to crack a cold case murder in her own family.

Patti Miller

The family of a grandmother killed when a minibus clipped a fuel tanker offers generous sympathy to the bus driver at his sentencing in Wollongong District Court today.

In March 1996, teenager Matthew De Gruchy bludgeoned his family to death in a "frenzied attack" in NSW. Twenty-three years later, he is set to be released from prison as a 41-year-old man.